FRISCO, Texas — Schellas Hyndman likes to hedge his bets.
After his 34-year-old captain, Daniel Hernandez, battled a knee injury late in 2010 that required surgery in November, the Dallas head coach knew he'd need an insurance policy at defensive midfield should Hernandez experience similar problems in 2011.
On Tuesday, Hyndman brought Brazilian midfielder Bruno Martins into camp. The 24-year-old will be with Dallas for the next few weeks and will join them on a six-day trip to Florida from Feb. 20-26.
Martins was most recently with Paulista, a second-division Brazilian side in São Paulo. He caught the eye of FCD technical director Barry Gorman, who was on a scouting trip in South America there last fall.
"Barry came back to me and said, 'I know we’re not looking for another central midfielder but this might be a player you might want to consider,'" said Hyndman, who admitted the club was initially scouting forwards. “So we made the decision to bring him. It’s the protection of Daniel Hernandez or if we need some more help in the center.”
[inline_node:327891]Martins wasn’t the only Brazilian going through his first practice with FCD on Tuesday. Recent signing and fellow midfielder Ricardo Villar, a Penn State product born in São Paulo, also went through his first session and could be a replacement for departed linking midfielder Dax McCarty.
Villar (pictured right) and Martins join two other Brazilian holdovers on the FCD roster: midfielder Bruno Guarda and defender/midfielder Jackson Goncalves, who played a number of positions in both midfield and defense last year for the eventual Western Conference champions.
Martins will likely see his share of time in practice as well as upcoming preseason games since Hyndman is taking a cautious approach to Hernandez and doesn’t know when he'll return.
Also sidelined during these early preseason sessions is center back George John, who recently had surgery to remove bone spurs from one of his ankles.
“We’re just being patient with [John and Hernandez],” Hyndman said.
FCD open preseason play on Saturday in Corpus Christi against the Houston Dynamo.
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